Like a broken tooth or a foot out of joint is confidence in a faithless man in time of trouble.
Parallel translations
- WEB Confidence in someone unfaithful in time of trouble is like a bad tooth, or a lame foot.
- KJV Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.
- NKJV Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble Is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint.
- NASB Like a bad tooth and an unsteady foot Is confidence in a treacherous person in time of trouble.
- NLT Putting confidence in an unreliable person in times of trouble is like chewing with a broken tooth or walking on a lame foot.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Relying on an unfaithful person in a crisis is like trusting a bad tooth or lame foot. False support fails when most needed.
Overview
The painful images of a broken tooth and a foot that gives way show that misplaced confidence collapses precisely in the hour of need. Wisdom urges discernment about whom we trust. It implicitly directs our ultimate confidence to the Lord, who never fails his people (Ps 18:2; Heb 13:5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Isa 36:6Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.
- Ezek 29:6–7Then all the people of Egypt will know that I am the LORD. For you were only a staff of reeds to the house of Israel.
- Job 6:14–20A despairing man should have the kindness of his friend, even if he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
- 2 Tim 4:16At my first defense, no one stood with me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be charged against them.
- 2 Chr 28:20–21Then Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came to Ahaz but afflicted him rather than strengthening him.
- Isa 30:1–3“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 25:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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